The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is requesting public input by March 28 on specific existing significant regulations, including customs and international trade rules, that it should consider as candidates for modification, streamlining, expansion or repeal. This request is part of the department’s tri-annual retrospective review of its regulations to ensure that they contain necessary, properly tailored and up-to-date requirements that effectively achieve regulatory objectives without imposing unwarranted costs.

DHS states that it will afford significantly greater weight to feedback that identifies specific regulations, includes actionable data or provides viable alternativesthat meet statutory obligations and regulatory objectives. For example, commenters should provide specific data that document the costs, burdens and benefits of existing requirements, and DHS is therefore encouraging the public to emphasize those rules that have been in effect for a sufficient amount of time to warrant a fair evaluation. The department notes that comments that rehash debates over recently issued rules will be less useful.

To assist in the formulation of comments, the DHS has provided the following list of questions to consider:

(1) Are there regulations that simply make no sense or have become unnecessary, ineffective, or ill advised and, if so, what are they? Are there regulations that can simply be repealed without impairing the Department's regulatory programs and, if so, what are they?

(2) Are there regulations that have become outdated and, if so, how can they be modernized to better accomplish their regulatory objectives?

(3) Are there regulations that are still necessary, but have not operated as well as expected such that a modified, stronger, or slightly different approach is justified?

(4) Does the Department currently collect information that it does not need or effectively use to achieve regulatory objectives?

(5) Are there regulations that are unnecessarily complicated or could be streamlined to achieve regulatory objectives in more efficient ways? If so, how can they be streamlined and/or made less complicated?

(6) Are there regulations that have been overtaken by technological developments? Can new technologies be leveraged to modify, streamline, or do away with existing regulatory requirements?

(7) Are there any Departmental regulations that are not tailored to impose the least burden on society, consistent with achieving the regulatory objectives?

(8) How can the Department best obtain and consider accurate, objective information and data about the costs, burdens, and benefits of existing regulations? Are there existing sources of data the Department can use to evaluate the post-promulgation effects of regulations over time?

(9) Are there regulations that are working well that can be expanded or used as a model to fill gaps in other DHS regulatory programs?

(10) Are there any regulations that create difficulty because of duplication, overlap, or inconsistency of requirements?

It should be noted that the list of questions is not exhaustive nor is it intended to restrict the issues that commenters may address. The DHS also advises that this request is being made solely for information and program planning purposes and it is therefore not bound to any further actions related to the response.